- a question you would like to focus on (see "Macbeth Paper and Presentation" wiki page for ideas - there are many suitable questions listed)
How does the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth drive the story?
+ a thesis (answer to the question)
Although love and marriage are typically concepts that carry positive connotations and cause happiness among people, the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth causes destruction and bloodshed.
+ at least three major points that support your thesis
1. Macbeth loves his wife, or is shown to, and thus listens and allows himself to be influenced by her even when he knows it is wrong
2. the fact that his wife called him a poor excuse of a man, and compares his love for her to his ambition causes him to change his mind and decide to kill Duncan to prove himself to her
3. by the end of the story, the love between Macbeth and his wife is so twisted and ravaged by the inhumanities they have committed that Macbeth doesn't really care what happens to her
4. Macbeth uses the love between other people to cause them pain, i.e. by killing their children and wife
+ at least one piece of textual evidence per major point
1. O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.
We will speak further.
2. From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire?
Are you a man?
3. The queen, my lord, is dead.
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
4. The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line.
How does the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth drive the story?
+ a thesis (answer to the question)
Although love and marriage are typically concepts that carry positive connotations and cause happiness among people, the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth causes destruction and bloodshed.
+ at least three major points that support your thesis
1. Macbeth loves his wife, or is shown to, and thus listens and allows himself to be influenced by her even when he knows it is wrong
2. the fact that his wife called him a poor excuse of a man, and compares his love for her to his ambition causes him to change his mind and decide to kill Duncan to prove himself to her
3. by the end of the story, the love between Macbeth and his wife is so twisted and ravaged by the inhumanities they have committed that Macbeth doesn't really care what happens to her
4. Macbeth uses the love between other people to cause them pain, i.e. by killing their children and wife
+ at least one piece of textual evidence per major point
1. O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't.
2. From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire?
Are you a man?
3. The queen, my lord, is dead.
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
4. The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line.